


Endymionis somnum dormire

by sad_goomy



Series: Gladmoon Week 2019 [7]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: ...or is it, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Diners, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Family Issues, First Meetings, Mythology References, Prompt Fic, idk what to blame for this odd little au but I love it, lonashipping, not in depth but it's there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 12:05:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18282101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sad_goomy/pseuds/sad_goomy
Summary: Gladion is fairly certain his life is becoming a Greek tragedy, but it's somehow so much more complicated than that, with a Classics minor, a recurring dream, and a new waitress.





	Endymionis somnum dormire

 

**Moonflower**

_Dreaming of love_

 

* * *

 

“Why would you minor in Classics?” 

 _Because I know what it’s like to have a dysfunctional family,_ Gladion thinks, but he has a feeling that’s not the answer his mother would be pleased with. He sighs on the phone, leaning back in his chair as he runs a hand down his face. 

“Employers like well-rounded candidates.” 

She tsks, and he’s on edge, but he knows that she usually drops the argument when he brings up his resumé. It’s the entire reason he’s had to go into business school. He thought that would be enough to satisfy her, but then she found a way to access his classes, and saw a few too many electives that she didn’t like, and now he has to speak to his mother for the first time in weeks. 

He holds his breath a moment longer and then she mutters, “Just don’t let it distract you.” 

“I won’t.” 

There’s a pause, and Gladion debates if he should go ahead and wrap this up with a goodbye. 

His mom hangs up on him without another word. 

“Good talking to you, too,” he mumbles to the air, and places the phone back down on his dining room table, going back to the marketing plan he was working on. 

 _At least she isn’t Medea._  

 

* * *

 

_Up the hill, the path he’s never seen but knows so well. The staff in his hand is worn, smoothed wood grain that crooks at the top. He pauses to smell the night breeze of salt and dirt, and looks out over the grassy hills, spotting his heard scattered amongst the hills._

_And when he reaches the top and settles in his usual spot, she is above him, waiting for him as always. She smiles down from the clouds, soft and glowing, and long hair flowing from her until it melts into the stars._

_Neither of them says it, but he knows what she is thinking all the same._

_As surely as I rise, I love you._

 

* * *

 

“Same dream?” 

Gladion blinks as he steps into the kitchen, still half-sleeping. Hau only waits expectantly for his answer, somehow up to his usual peppy self despite it being too early in the morning. 

The half-full coffee pot explains that mystery. 

As he takes a (mostly) clean mug out of the cabinet and helps himself to a generous pour, Gladion asks his roommate, “How can you tell?” 

“You always have the same smile afterwards.” 

The mug pauses halfway to the blonde's lips, because he didn’t even realize he was smiling. After the caffeine starts to hit him and he can think in more than disjointed phrases, he mumbles, “It’s been getting...fuzzier though.” 

“Fuzzy?” Hau parrots, rinsing his mug in the sink and all too aware that he’s almost late to class. 

“Less clear, almost like there are layers of static over it.” 

“Huh.” They consider it for a moment, and then Hau’s cell-phone beeps to remind him that his lecture is starting soon and he grabs his bag, making his way towards the front door. “Wonder what made it change?” 

Gladion shrugs, unsure himself – he's been having some version of that same dream on a weekly basis for almost a year now, and there isn’t anything off the top of his head that would cause it to go away. To be fair, he doesn’t even know why he started having it in the first place. 

He manages to give Hau a wave before he steps out, leaving Gladion to think, to try and conjure the face of the woman in the dream. 

He never can. 

 

* * *

 

About a week later, he stops having the dream altogether. 

It’s too soon to say if it’s gone completely, but it’s distracting nonetheless. He finds it hard to focus in the mythology class required for his minor, tapping his fingers absently against the keys instead of taking notes. 

“Which brings us to the Lunar Goddesses.” The squeak of marker against whiteboard brings Gladion back to the classroom, watching as his professor writes out three names on the board. “Artemis, Hecate, and Selene.” 

Looking down at his laptop, Gladion realizes his notes are a little too sparse, and chastises himself as he resumes typing.  _I’ll have to ask Ilima to share his notes._  

The professor finishes writing, turning back to the lecture hall and continuing, “Although all three are associated with each other and the moon, only one is the actual personification of the moon: Selene.” He pauses, looking over the crowd of college students from his podium before he asks, “What do you know about her already?” 

A few hands go up, and he calls on a girl in the third row. “She fell in love with – I forget his name, but he was a shepherd, I think, and he fell into eternal sleep, so she visited him every night.” 

Nodding, the professor goes back to the board and writes down a fourth name, next to Selene. “Yes, she’s best known for her love of Endymion. As with all the myths that we’ve studied so far, there are several versions. Does anyone know one of the reasons why Endymion was put under eternal sleep?” 

Those same hands go up, and Gladion listens and takes notes as they throw out theories, begin to tell stories. 

Zeus allowed him to choose how he wanted to die. 

He fell in love with Hera and begged for eternal sleep instead. 

Selene sentenced him to it so she could watch him every night. 

Their professor stops behind his podium once more, chewing on his cheek in thought for a moment. With a lopsided smile, he decides to ask, “How about we make our own version?” A murmur ripples through the students, and Gladion sinks further into his seat subconsciously. “Does anyone have an idea why he might have been put into an eternal sleep?” 

Several moments of silence pass, and then a few students hesitantly raise their hands, barely high enough to count. With a scan of the room, the professor’s eyes land on Gladion. 

He didn’t even realize he had raised his hand. 

But he’s walked himself into this now, and he swallows his surprise, only to find an answer waiting right at the edge of his lips. 

 

“Maybe he fell in love with the moon, and it’s the only way he could reach her.” 

 

Gladion sees a few heads nod, and the professor seems happy enough, leaning back and nodding as he mutters to himself, “Now that’s interesting...” 

Thankfully, he doesn’t ask any follow-up questions, instead collecting a few more answers, letting Gladion let out a sigh of relief, because he doesn’t know what else he would have to say. 

 _I mean who would fall in love with the moon?_  

 

* * *

 

Lillie warns him that their mother is upset, but he can’t avoid the screaming match over the phone. 

It’s two hours long, which isn’t the longest argument he’s had with his mother, but it’s the most vitriolic in a while. It doesn’t end so much as he feels himself losing his voice and hangs up before she can say something else that will set him off. 

A soft knock at his door is followed by Hau’s voice. “You good, dude?” 

Gladion checks the time – 11:30pm. “Yeah, I...” He lets out a deep breath, feeling some guilt take the harsh edges of fury off him. “Sorry about that.” 

“Oh, no worries, it’s just, uh,” Hau falters, and even through the door Gladion can practically see him scratching the back of his neck, “Do you want to talk about it?” 

It’s the same thing he’s offered since Gladion’s moved in, and doubly so after meeting Lillie and hearing the full extent of their home life. But it doesn’t make it any easier, and the thoughts are too messy, and so Gladion simply responds, “Maybe later.” 

“Alright, uh, good night.” 

The footsteps recede, and he waits until he hears Hau’s door close before grabbing his laptop and shoving it in his bag, deciding that he’s too worked up to even try to go to sleep. 

 

* * *

 

It’s a quick walk down the street to his favorite diner. 

Not that it’s a good diner, but it stays open 24 hours and the coffee is cheap. 

The usual crowd of a Thursday night is there, which amounts to just about no one except another student and about three people having a meal before they work the graveyard shift. 

He settles into his favorite booth in the corner, the red vinyl of the seat always peeling and not all that comfortable. With his laptop open, he decides to finish up an assignment for his accounting class before starting on the readings for his mythology course. 

And just for the hell of it, maybe he’ll look at what the job market is like halfway across the globe (and as far from his family as he can get). 

“What can I get you?” 

It’s a voice he’s heard before, but he frowns when he looks up from his scream, because the face – from the freckles to the gray eyes – is entirely unfamiliar. Yet when he looks at her, his heart settles into a stronger, steadier rhythm, like some final piece has clicked in his life and the rest is history. 

“You’re not Ruth.” 

The young woman raises a brow, but there’s a secret in her smile. “No, I’m not.”  

She says her name, but it feels like she says seven, and they all slip out of his mind like silk. When he furrows his brows and tries to recall it, it only slips further from his mind. 

“But you can call me Moon.” 

His eyes widen, and he wonders how many coincidences he can chalk up in this moment. She’s still waiting for him to order, though, adjusting the apron of her uniform and watching him with a spark in her eyes that sends a wave of nostalgia washing over him. 

“Just coffee.” 

“Cream and sugar?” 

Gladion shakes his head, and Moon smiles, nodding her head – her long black ponytail bobs with the movement. She turns on a heel, white sneakers squeaking against the cheap linoleum floor, and he goes back to his laptop, very nearly missing when she mumbles, “Be right back, Endymion.” 

He freezes, sitting up and calling out, “Sorry, what?” 

She stops, turning to him with a bemused expression, but he swears there’s a wink hiding in there somewhere. “Just said I’d be right back with your coffee.” 

And he watches her walk behind the counter, humming a little tune as she brews a fresh pot, and leaving him to sit there in wonder, feeling remnants of that one dream beginning to stir in his mind and settling on the one phrase that always ended it. 

 

 _As surely as I rise, I love you._  

 

Maybe he’ll have to start coming here more often. 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> And we're ending it with a free day, but I decided to stick with the flower theme and wouldn't you know it, there's something called a moonflower. Title is a reference to a Greek proverb that translates to "to sleep the sleep of Endymion"
> 
> Now all I can think of is that one scene in Avatar the Last Airbender when Sokka says "My girlfriend turned into the moon" (and Zuko's iconic, "That's rough, buddy")


End file.
